Do You Know the Story Behind Your State’s Flag?

Each of the 50 states of the United States of America has a distinct flag that gives us a glimpse into its rich history. While some citizens may see their flag as a piece of cloth that happens to represent their home-state, others believe that they are of high significance, and go as far as to consider them sacred.

Nevertheless, considering the unique nature in which the country was founded, the stories behind each flag will leave you in awe pondering, how did fifty ‘mini-countries’, holding vastly different ideologies at times, eventually unite to create the great empire as we know it today!?

Ready to test your knowledge? Read on to find out the story behind your state’s flag.

Alabama

People from Alabama already know that quite a few historic figures grew up under this state’s flag. Like, Helen Keller, the first deaf and blind person to earn a college degree, and Rosa Parks, the civil rights activist, best known for her central role in the Montgomery bus boycott.

On February 16, 1895, 76 years after Alabama joined the Union, it finally came time for Sweet Home Alabama to officially adopt their own flag. They decided to go for a “crimson cross of St. Andrew on a field of white” (characteristic of the Confederate flag). According to the Alabama Department of Archives and History, the flag’s design was intended to “preserve in permanent form some of the more distinctive features of the Confederate battle flag,”.

Alabama’s flag is also on the (short) list of state flags that don’t include the color blue. You’ll understand how rare that is as you read on. The other three states are California, Maryland, and New Mexico.

The Wisdom Segment

I
The French Revolution was a time of social and political rebellion in France, which started in 1789 and was caused by the inequalities between the poor and the rich. The French Revolution began on July 14, 1789, when the people of France charged the Bastille. This structure was a royal fort that had been turned into a prison.

II
The Revolution went on until 1799, leading to the disbanding of the French royal family, a government change, armed conflicts with other countries in Europe, the execution of Marie Antoinette and King Louis XVI, and the start of Napoleon Bonaparte's rule in France.

III
Before the French Revolution, peasants were so poor and the cost of food so high, that a lot of them starved to death. A single loaf of bread, for example, cost a week's wages. The rich were born rich, and the poor were born poor, meaning people could not work to become wealthy, as we can nowadays, you had to be born with it or forever miss out.

IV
The poor in France were starving while the wealthy lived an extravagant lifestyle. The imbalance caused seething anger and resentment. The poor paid taxes to the king while the rich did not. Only seven prisoners were found in the Bastille when the revolutionaries stormed it.

V
The revolutionaries were looking for gunpowder when they stormed the Bastille. They were not interested in the prisoners. Charles Dicken's book, A Tale of Two Cities, was set during the French Revolution.

VI
Before the French Revolution, French people were not allowed to be practicing Jews or Protestants. These religions were forbidden until after the French Revolution when worshippers were finally allowed to practice as they saw fit. The French Revolution came to a close with the freeing of 10,000 African slaves. Before this, many aristocrats were spectacularly put to death via the guillotine.